Sometimes I Don't Like Being a Grown Up

This title means I sat down today and paid bills and it wasn't pretty.  But at least it wasn't as ugly as it could have been. ;-)

The second paycheck of the month hit the bank account credit union account on Friday, so I sat down this morning and paid the rest of the bills that need paying this month.
That would include the "monthlies"--electric bill, the credit card bill(which includes most of our gasoline purchases and some eating out).  The "rest of the bills" also includes the non-montlies like a $1197.71 car repair(I can now state for the record that I hate catalytic converters!) and the yearly school taxes(ditto school taxes).  I did receive a 5% discount for paying the taxes before Oct. 1st so it was a mere $1940.81.  I got about $76 off....go me!

After writing out the checks that needed writing, I now have $1246.24 LESS in my account than I had BEFORE the paycheck hit the account.!
Or to put it another way, I just spent $1246.24 MORE THAN the paycheck brought in.

Yah, still wrapping my head around that one!lol

Oh, and that doesn't count the $480 IN CASH Hubs took out of the bank on Saturday.  Ok, some of that was for me for my food budget, but most of it I will never get a single receipt back on what he blew it on.  I am guessing coffee and crap he buys at the hardware store.....crap he HAS already in the garage but he can't find because he refuses to CLEAN HIS WORKBENCH!
End of rant.......

I'll just say here that I am so glad that I put money aside each month for that tax bill(plus the other tax bill that comes due April 1st), plus the car insurance bill which I pay semi-annually. 

If I didn't and I had to basically pull money out of my ass for some of these bills, we'd be in a bad bad place financially....
A place called "Hello Credit Card!, let's put what we can't pay on YOU" and then only make minimum payments and stay in and increase our debt until we end up on Suze Orman's show as a warning to the world on how NOT to handle money, instead of downsizing out lifestyle and spending less on crap or "wants" so we can only be in debt for a short time while we turn our ship and get headed in the fiscally responsible direction.

But still......sometimes I hate being a Grown Up and doing the responsible thing instead of the easy thing or the thing I see other people doing that I know is only going to cause them pain at some point in the future.

But I have my eye on the prize.....the prize of a financially secure retirement.
Well, as secure as it can be considering the political atmosphere in this country. ;-) 

When I retire, THIS is the view I want to have when I have to pay my bills.....but with cuter feet......

Sluggy
 

Friday Randomness with Sluggy

 Here are some things fermenting in my wacky brain lately....

**Have you noticed the escalating price of bacon lately?  I hit a rather decent sales/coupons double out of the ballpark about 5 months ago so I haven't really checked in on the current going price for that porky goodness since early last Spring.
Since our supply is almost gone, I started last week to take note of the market price for bacon.
And let me say for the record....that shits gone way up!!  Regular retail here for $5 to $6 a PACKAGE!
Great Googley Moogley!!
I paid $1.00 a package the last time I stocked up and it was an amazing $2.00 straight sale price without a coupon then.
I might have to start trolling the local animal shelters for abandoned pot bellied pigs to bring home and fatten up.....ok, not really but I *did* consider that for a few moments. ;-)

**I took SonyaAnn's ADVICE and cashed out my credit card Rewards for Christmas gift cards the other day.  I have 8 gift cards winging their way to me in time for Holiday giving.  I have to dig out my gift stash and figure what more I still have to acquire/make.  I'll probably do that next week or this weekend.  I want to have everything in process or done by Thanksgiving so I only have to darken a stores door for food between Black Friday and New Year's Day.
Not to freak anyone out or anything but there are only 70 Shopping Days left Until Christmas......

**This is a photo of part of our high school's Marching Band taken 3 weeks ago.
The kid in the center playing the flute is my son.
I do think it's time for a haircut.....

**Have you noticed that Outlet Malls are no longer the place to get a deal?
Ok....maybe sometimes they are.....but over the past few years outlet malls have really become just another excuse to throw up a shopping mall somewhere and sell regularly priced stuff.  I am old enough to remember when an outlet 'store' meant it was located in the geographic area of it's manufacturing mill and carried overruns, imperfects, seconds, etc. and you could buy them at a deep discount off of the regularly priced perfects that got shipped to the regular stores.  My mom and I use to take trips to Lightfoot VA to snag deals at the Williamsburg Pottery Factory when I was growing up.  Good times.....
Somewhere about 1978 though they began renting out space there(after they over expanded and the economy tanked a bit)directly to the manufacturers they had previously bought outlet bound stuff from and resold.  Other real outlet stores followed suite.  That's when it all went downhill for the deals in my humble opinion.  The manufacturers began stocking/running their own outlets.  Seeing how successful this model was, developers began building outlet malls so you could go to one place and get deals from many different brands without traveling far.  And they located them in touristy areas to generate more revenue.  Then they started offering regular mall bound merchandise or lines created just to sell in the outlets, which raised all the prices and just bastardized the whole original concept and made outlet stores/malls mostly crap in my opinion.

The point was illustrated clearly this past week on our trip to Ocean City.  We stopped in Rehobeth Delaware at the Tanger Outlets to do some clothes/shoe shopping.  While Hubs got some deals on shoes at Rack Room shoes and I picked up a pair of Chuck Taylors for Daughter for less than full retail, no deals were to be found at the supposed Under Armor outlet store.

#2 son wanted a basic black shirt to wear under his Marching Band uniform so we went looking. Everything in that store was full retail price, unless you wanted some boys sized shirts(that were STILL $20!) or some hideously ugly pieces I wouldn't buy at a thrift store for a fraction of the price they were charging.

**I mentioned awhile back about a relative who was having a financial crisis, and that I was helping them with a plan to get them "out of the weeds", as they say in golf.....not that I play golf or anything....
I am so happy to hear that they got through September and have taken the budgeting info. and embraced it, tweeking it and making it their own.  Hopefully, they should be able to get through the next few years until their situation is scheduled to improve.

**One of the Deal Blogs(sorry, can't remember which one)had something posted Sunday about a 10-10-10 sale on 6pm, the dotcom shoe/clothing store.  Big clearance sale where everything was $10!
Luckily we have some oddball sized feet in this house, so I was able to find 9 pairs of shoes we could use...woohoo!
I am not a big fan of buying shoes online since you can't try them on, but I figured for $10 I'd take some calculated risks on styles/sizes and if some don't fit right, I can pass brand new shoes along for Christmas to friends, other family members, the local Christmas charity program or make a thrift store donation.

#2 son is a skateboarder.  He goes through shoes quickly.  He lusts after expensive skaterboarding branded shoes.  I found one of these brands in this clearance sale for $10 a pr.  Reg. retail of $65 a pr.  I bought 5 pairs(in 3 sizes) for less than what 1 pair would cost me at the mall store(not that I'd every buy them there for full retail). lolol

The downside.....now my bedroom closet looks like the storeroom in a shoe warehouse.

Anybody seen my shoe horn?

Sluggy